Reader Recipe: Warm Roasted Squash, Prosciutto and Pecorino Salad

Today's Reader Recipe comes from our very own TeamSugar. This past Christmas her family decided they would give warm salads a try. I suggested that she try a recipe that member AlliJean posted and from the look of things, it turned out spectacularly. If this warm salad recipe for Roasted Squash, Prosciutto and Pecorino tastes as beautiful as it looks, then sign me up! To get the recipe for yourself, read more.

This past Christmas, everyone was to bring a warm salad to contribute. Thanks to both YumSugar's recommendation and AlliJean's recipe, I made one of the best salads ever. Everyone at dinner absolutely loved it, it was rich and delicious but not heavy.

Preheat your oven to 375°F. Carefully cut your butternut squash in half, keeping the seeds intact. Remove the two ends and discard them. Cut each half into quarters and lay in a roasting tray. Rub with a little olive oil. In a pestle and mortar pound up a flat teaspoon each of salt, pepper and your chili and coriander seeds. Scatter this over the squash. Roast the squash for half an hour or until soft and golden. Allow to cool a little.

Lay your prosciutto on 4 plates — let it hang over the rim of the plates and encourage it to twist and turn so it doesn’t look neat and flat. Tear up your warm squash and put it in and around the ham. Sprinkle over the seeds and the rocket. Drizzle over the olive oil and balsamic, add a tiny pinch of salt and pepper, and use a vegetable peeler to shave over the Pecorino. Easily done.

I made this as the first course for dinner when we had friends over, and it was so delicious and easy that I'm telling everyone I know about the recipe and the site! I used baby arugula instead of rocket, and it was the perfect acidity and spiciness -- may be what TeamSugar staff above used. Used a whole butternut squash, heavy on the dried chilis in the rub, and also salt/peppered the seeds inside the squash. The recipe forgot to say to keep the seeds, but later says to use them -- they were great. I made up everything for the salad ahead of time, and then microwaved the squash to rewarm it and assemble the salad when it was time. This worked really well, and this is my new favorite salad. It really was rich without being heavy, so we all had room for dinner and dessert.

This salad is incredibly easy. I actually didn't use rocket in the salad and substituted some lettuce from the mustard family that tasted sort of like a spicy spinach but, of course, the name escapes me! But spinach would work just fine.